Bristol's new fire engines off road in row over safety
Four new fire engines worth £130,000 each have been temporarily mothballed at Avon Fire Service HQ – because firefighters won't drive them.
The vehicles have been parked up behind Bristol city centre's Temple Back fire station.
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Two of the fire engines parked behind Temple Back fire station
They will not be used again until health and safety fears have been resolved, firefighters have told the Bristol Evening Post.
Fire service officials say drivers need to be put through more training to learn how to properly drive the semi-automatic German-built MAN fire trucks.
But union leaders, speaking on behalf of firefighters, say mechanical work needs to be done on the trucks' gearboxes before its members will agree to use them. The dispute over half a million pounds of new firefighting equipment means crews are being sent out in old tenders, which have already clocked up tens of thousands of miles.
The disagreement is centred around the trucks' sequential semi- automatic gearboxes, which have a manual gear stick but no clutch pedal, similar to some of the latest top-spec sports cars.
For the last few months, two of the four engines had been based at Weston-super-Mare fire station, and the others had been on 999 watch at Brislington and Yate fire stations.
They were withdrawn from service last week after the Avon Fire Brigade Union (FBU) raised concerns.
The Bristol Evening Post understands that another four identical MAN fire engines are on order waiting to be delivered to Avon Fire Service.
Chris Jackson, branch secretary of the Avon FBU, said: "We raised health and safety fears and the management immediately took them off the road.
"They [the four fire engines] have been on the run for a couple of months but members have told us that there are a few problems and they are not happy.
"The gearboxes have more gears on them than they [the drivers] are used to and there was an issue with the way they slow down when drivers took their foot off the accelerator pedal. The gearboxes need to be recalibrated. We are driving emergency vehicles to answer 999 calls and we need to be sure they are up to the job."
One firefighter, who asked not to be named, said: "Most drivers think they've had the wrong gearboxes put on these new trucks.
"We need to be able to fully trust the vehicles we drive at speed on 999 shouts and at the moment we don't.
"This is a spectacular waste of taxpayers' money. Surely all this should have been sorted before the trucks were put on the road?"
Deputy fire chief Jerry O'Brien said the fire service would not be spending any more money on the four fire engines, which met all the required safety standards and guidelines set down nationally by the Government.
He said: "Some firefighters have had a go at us because they drive differently to the trucks they're used to and they don't like that.
"We've arranged for them to have more driver training and the four appliances will be off the road for as long as it takes to train them.
"In essence, there is nothing wrong with them. They have passed all the required safety checks.
"And although we are not using them on frontline duties in Bristol at the moment they are still available, and if a fire engine breaks down then we will use them."
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by JinJin, Bristol
Wednesday, October 29 2008, 2:10PM
“Lovely to hear from these HGV drivers who reckon they are looking for a new job (wonder why that is then...?). What surprises me even more is that they seem to think they know a lot about driving fire engines - Firefighters and in fact all emergency service drivers undertake special training for driving emergency vehicles at high speed under blue light conditions, quite a different kettle of fish than plodding around in a bog standard lorry. Perhaps they should wind their necks in and concentrate their energies on getting a job rather than commenting on things about which they obviously know nothing! By the way, I heard that DHL are looking for delivery drivers.....”
by Bob, bristol
Monday, October 27 2008, 9:34PM
“Can someone who writes this article please e mail me as your article is full of lies and i wish to put you straight .”
by Bob, bristol
Monday, October 27 2008, 9:24PM
“rubbish this is all lies as a fire fighter myself i can tell you we have not refused to ride these trucks they have been taken off of the run due to blue light failure”
by Bob, Bristol
Monday, October 27 2008, 9:09PM
“Who wrote this article it is full of lies as a fire fighter who drives these trucks i would just like to say the trucks are off the run because the blue lights fail to operate which i think most would agree is very important . however these trucks are fitted with a stupid gearbox (as the brigade wanted to save money) which makes the trucks extremely slow to accelerate which in turn means we cannot get to fires etc as quickly as in the old trucks but no fire fighters have refused to drive them only expressed concerns about how slow they are .”
by abi, bristol
Thursday, October 23 2008, 6:45PM
“well said Boris and Firefighter, that will shut the faetious crew up, I think you have every right to raise concerns and I think you do an excellent job. You seem to have silenced the ignorant ramblers so well done. miracle! Christmas must be coming”
by Boris, Yate
Thursday, October 23 2008, 6:04PM
“I'm a driver of one of these trucks and we've not refused to use them cos of the gearbox. Issue is the blue lights turning themselves off on firecalls. Gearbox makes it difficult to drive under blue light conditions. On a truck that weighs twice what a fire engine does, it would be fine. We have 3 retarders that make almost make us leave our seats when we take our feet off the throttle, the braking is so severe and we have no control over what gear we're in so when car drivers kindly pull over for us, we take ages to build up the speed again. I'm sure that if you had called us out, you would want us there as quick as possible?
Over to you.”
by firefighter, bristol
Thursday, October 23 2008, 6:01PM
“The story is not accurate (yet again), the gearbox is designed for HGVs that trundle slowly through towns or steadily along motorways. Its not that we object to a NEW gearbox, its great for delivery drivers but not suitable for the stop/start fast driving we have to do around town en route to calls. We never refused to drive them, we raised concerns abouts its suitability for the job and our managers withdrew them. Incidently, the main issue we had was that the blue lights turn off when you go over a bump, how do you propose us namby pamby ffs get over that? I love these forums, so many experts, so little knowledge!”
by kevin, bristol
Thursday, October 23 2008, 4:03PM
“u couldnt make it up”
by Roy Harris, Downend,
Thursday, October 23 2008, 3:33PM
“I think, if these engines were nice red Ferraris with sequential gearboxes the fire men would be queueing up to drive them.”
by Paul, stoke park
Thursday, October 23 2008, 3:22PM
“Wot a load of codswollop. I drive for an HGV agency and have to drive different arctics everyday. I Don't have a problem with a MAN auto or any other manufacturers. Am currently looking for a job!!”